Erick Erickson tweeted this today: You know the Bush era is gone when Palin is getting blamed for everything, not Bush.
I didn’t want to write this post. This is not supposed to be a political blog. But sometimes, things just need to be said.

On my way home tonight I heard the end of the President’s speech at the memorial/slash rally which, to me anyway, was eerily reminiscent of the Paul Wellstone memorial rally. Don’t get me wrong, what I heard from the President was strong and Presidential. It was the crowd response that disturbed me more. Still, who really can dictate how we’re “supposed” to respond to grief? MSNBC has the text of the President’s remarks.

At least a little civility and a little self control could have been used in the first responses to the shooting. Before we even knew what was really going on, opportunists were already blaming Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the Tea Party. There was a rather disgusting YouTube video that’s a collection of tweets from the weekend, but it’s been pulled because it was too disgusting even for the folks at YouTube.

A couple of days ago, people were trashing Sarah Palin for remaining silent. She had issued a small statement to Glenn Beck’s show. Today, she released a video response via Facebook. Then the same people trashed her for speaking out. Here’s a look at the video.

You can easily find the responses trashing Palin. Here are a few that see it her way.

…There is, after all, a political advantage that can be gained by insisting that those are crosshairs on the Palin map. That’s why many in the ObamaMedia will continue to run with that “cross hairs” scenario. It works for them, so stick with it in spite of the facts…Of course none of this makes any difference whatsoever to those of the leftist persuasion who are determined to seize on this tragedy for political gain. You, though, now see how phony, not to mention hypocritical, this “Palin’s Map” nonsense is.

….Because fighting and warfare are the most routine of political metaphors. And for obvious reasons. Historically speaking, all democratic politics is a sublimation of the ancient route to power — military conquest. That’s why the language persists. That’s why we speak without any self-consciousness of such things as “battleground states” and “targeting” opponents. Indeed, the very word for an electoral contest — “campaign” — is an appropriation from warfare.

EDITORIAL: Blood libel against Palin, LimbaughThe Washington Times
Typical of blood libel, the attack against Mrs. Palin is a false charge intended to generate anger made by people with a political agenda. They have made these claims boldly without evidence and without censure or consequence.

It’s not just Sarah Palin, Paul Krugman took on Congresswoman Michelle Bachman, but James Taranto in The Wall Street Journal notes “But that is not what he said. Krugman, who recreationally burns politicians in effigy, described Bachmann’s comment as “eliminationist rhetoric.” That is flatly fraudulent.”

Sarah Palin is on the list of people I don’t want to see get the Republican nomination in 2012 (that list keeps getting longer), but today she spoke for the right and for the Republicans, and she looked like a leader. The President, while I disagree with the vast majority of his policies, also spoke like a leader tonight. Both called for a more civil discourse.